Someone In The Crowd

Chapter - 15

               Wuxian was very excited about the responsibility that was given to him, but his only concern was the young man who was to work with him. After yesterdays encounter, he was not so sure that the other would wholeheartedly help him. But as it turned out that all his concerns had been for nothing at all. The younger had been more than a little help to him.

               Before he had come to the college Wuxian riled himself up thinking how to approach Wangji but the latter took the burden off his shoulder by simply coming up and wishing a short good morning to him. He also did not raise any trouble or showed any kind of hostility during the meeting with their other co-professors who are their mentors as well. Even during the meeting with the student of both departments he mostly stayed quiet only interjecting when he felt something was left out of discussion, and so by the end of the day Wuxian was pretty happy with how the events were developing and was looking forward to a cordial if not exactly a pleasant co-operation, but deep within he knew that things were not as pleasant as they looked from outside. And as time passed on his suspicion only proved to be more true than he wished it to be.

               Days passed by with those two maintaining a civil relationship and the drama was also coming up quite smoothly. They were already through the script for a few times and was on the way of making it final within a couple days. The two mentors were very satisfied with the subject and plot the students have come up with and felt that the programme might turn up quite good after all. Other senior professors of these two departments also approved of the theme very positively and they had no problems getting an "OKAY" from the Principal as well.

               It has been nearly 2 weeks since the argument took place between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, but fortunately it did not disturb their work life at all or so it seemed to all around them. But Wuxian knew that the younger drew away from him and he was in no mood to make amends between them as well. So a silent war waged on between those two.

Did the students suffer because of this?

The answer would probably be no. The students had their own problems to deal with and they were too much into their own problems to notice any amiss among the professors. On the other hand, the professors, even though, were caught in a headlock among themselves knew about the conflicts going on between the student but decided not to interfere unless extremely necessary.

               The play this time was a kind of pastiche. The students wanted to take the character of Feste from William Shakespeares famous comedy Twelfth Night and make a drama with Feste being the main character and the others as side characters. And the conflicts came from this. There were many heated arguments within the students about the parts, especially about who should play the character of young Feste and the older Feste. At the end the two departments decided to take one role each. The department of Acting took the part o f younger Feste and the Department of Applied Theatre took the role of the older Feste. There was another big conflict about the role divisions about the side characters and who will be the script writers as well. Even though these conflicts came to an end and the roles were divided quiet equally, there still was a lingering grudge between the two departments. But such was the story of every year so it was pretty normal to the professors.

               The script was nearly done and with some help from Wuxian and Wangji the students managed to pull off quiet a decent and acceptable script looking from the historical perspective and all. The elder professors were also satisfied with how the script was progressing. They targeted to make the it a five act play just like a Renaissance drama and were currently on the third act. Not only the script writing was progressing but the actors were also practicing for their roles under the guidance of their mentors.

               Even though the script was not complete they had to start practising. They did not have the leisure to wait until the script was complete to start their trainings.

                The fact that Wangji is better at portraying Festes character compared to Wuxian came as a surprise to everyone around. To say the least, none of the students had ever saw Wangji acting on a stage so it was a shock to all. The students flocked around him for guidance but he politely rejected them saying that the work had been already divided and they should contact their mentor and also that just because he was better at portraying one character then the other did not in any way mean that the elder was any bad than him, but the opposite was correct.

               Unfortunate for Wangji though, because some of the students of the Applied Theatre took his words as insulting to their beloved professor and on the other hand the Acting students thought that the other department was trying to take away their mentor and also hamper the whole programme. This kind of misunderstandings were not unusual in such kind of arrangements until one day the two professors began another silent war based on another sheer miscommunication.

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